Corps students complain about lack of laundry support in barracks

Laundry access in the Corps barracks is limited to only three washers and dryers.

For some students, like Sean Cassbarro, Sunday morning means going down to the basement of his dorm to try to do his laundry only to find that all of the working machines are being used. Come back a little bit later – and find that they are all still occupied.

He is not the only student at Norwich stalking the laundry rooms on campus. There are others eyeing the suds of occupied washing machines when it flips to the final rinse cycle.Doing laundry on campus as a resident Norwich University student is made more difficult by the lack of working machines among the few that are in each room and the number of students competing to use them.

“It’s a lot more difficult to doing it here since there are only three washers and dryers available” said Sean Cassbarro a 19-year-old criminal justice sophomore from Hamden, Conn. “I’ve come down numerous times and either someone’s redoing laundry or someone else from another building using it.”

“Whenever I get to wash my clothes, they never smell clean and whenever I put them in the dryer, they’re always moist,” said Andrew Churchill, a 19-year-old sophomore environmental science major from Scituate, Mass.

Many students have similar complains how most of the dorms on the UP have about three washers and three dryers with hundreds of people living in each barracks, making it real inconvenient for students to find an available time and spot to do laundry.

With many students running on similar schedules, the basic task of doing laundry can be a real hassle for students like Churchill, who have academic and work priorities to consider. Students sometimes have to wait hours just to be able to wash and dry their clothes.

Many students believe just adding some extra dryers and washers can ease things up. Sam Spake, 19, a sophomore from Lexington, N.C., majoring in studies of war and peace, says that he believes it can help greatly but does not see it happening. “Of course it will help us out but I don’t see that happening unfortunately, you think with the money we pay we could get extras – makes you wonder where your money is going too,” he said.

According to Spake, what is frustrating to him is that when the machine does not do the wash properly the first time, the extra quarters he has to spend just to get it rewashed or dry it again. Many other students have also voiced the same frustration.

“The washers don’t really work properly at times and the dryers at times don’t even dry your clothes. I tend to find them still really wet and have to put in extra quarters,” Cassbarro said.

“I have to wait hours to get my laundry time cause I have to put in extra quarters due to washers not doing its job at the first time or waiting for a spot to open,” said Matt Koser, 22, a senior criminal justice major from Lexington, Mass.

Many have similar stories like his, often wasting extra quarters that can use on the next laundry date to take care of the one they’re doing now, since most student are on a budget, this is really inconvenient.

Some students say they would go to a washer/dryer place near them if they could and do laundry there instead of using the washers and dryers at Norwich but that means wasting gas money to go there which is really inconvenient.

Charles Constantino, a 22-year-old senior history and education major from South Riding, Va., said that he had not experienced this issue during his time at NU but believes that there should be more than three washers and dryers per building since the building in South, he says, has more.

“(I) didn’t have a problem getting my laundry done when I was in South for a few weeks with other people over the summer,” Constantino said. “(The civilian dorm) had more than three (machines),” he added to compare the corps versus civilian lifestyles in the student laundry plight. “They had stacked on top of each other with washer and dryers and really convenient for everyone there.”

Although many believe putting extra washers and dryers on campus would be the solution, Sam Gozo, 22, a senior criminal justice major from Rahway, N.J., said that he does not see the potential solution the same way as some of the other students.

“As a short term solution, it will probably work but I feel like it won’t be a long term solution for the school,” Gozo said, referring to how costly the new appliances will be. “More washers and dryers mean more water and electricity having to be used to making them function.”

“I have shared those frustrations with the other students,” Gozo said along with pointing out that students sometimes may overload the washers with clothes or detergent that makes the machine not work properly.

Until a solution can be found, many students acknowledge that doing laundry is not always going to be a simple task – and realize that sometimes they going to have wait it out to find a open one, or go to another dorm for cleaning their dirty clothes.

Comments

Laundry facilities in the dorms/barracks? Wow! Imagine what it was like for us back in the dark ages (1960’s), often walking to the coin-op laundry in downtown Northfield with our laundry bags slug over our shoulders!